No Longer Infants

“Unity in the faith” is a goal of maturity. If you are estranged from the body of Christ, you have not achieved maturity. Your engagement in the body of Christ is evidence that you are growing up. We so often think the opposite is true. (“I am estranged because I have superior knowledge and greater maturity, and I cannot tolerate the heresy.”)

“Knowledge of the Son of God” is part of growing up. This knowledge comes both through study of God’s word and through service to others in the name of Christ. Knowledge alone does not make us mature.

“Works of service” are essential to your spiritual maturity. You may be able to quote the whole Bible, cover to cover, but if you are not doing works of service, you are still an infant who hears but does not implement the Word.

Don't Be Tossed and Blown:

"tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching." — Ephesians 4:14

No longer infants. Paul believes that the Christians in Ephesus and elsewhere are too easily drawn away from the good news that is centered in Christ Jesus. They choose the more exciting teachings and teachers even though they are false. This is evidence of spiritual immaturity. They have not grown up in Christ himself. They are not stable spiritually.

• Tossed sounds like a salad. We are all mixed up.
• Blown sounds like a tumbleweed headed to who knows where, stacked up against the fences.

Waves that trouble us:

• Waves are difficult circumstances in your life. David sang to the Lord is 2 Samuel 22:5: The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
• We can be thrown off balance spiritually by grief and loss.
• Waves are difficult circumstances in the world: "You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior… who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations." (Psalm 65:5,7).
• We can be spiritually sidetracked by events in the world that we find fearful or confusing—“turmoil of the nations."
• Waves are false teachers as in Jude 4: "For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." Then he adds in Jude 13: "They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame."

Winds that throw us off course: blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (Eph 4:14).

• These winds are people, false teachers as with waves.
• They are deliberate in their lies. They intend to deceive because there is money to be made. The deception here is like a trickster who has weighted dice or with sleight of hand fools you and takes your money. They are cunning and crafty. 
• Deceitful scheming is all about “false wisdom.” Those who fool you are smart enough to know they are doing so. But they benefit from your gullibility.
• Identifying False Teachers.
  • They tell you that all the other teachers are false. They alone have the truth. “All denominations are wrong.”
  • Their real center is an idea they have about the end of the world or the world order. They are appealing, not to Christ in you, but to fear and distrust in you.
  • They are selling something. 

How do I stabilize my heart and spirit?

Stabilize Your Heart:

"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." — Ephesians 4:15

Grasp the “Instead.” 

• Realize that there is an alternative to the dizzying and confusing life of tossed and blown. You don’t have to throw up your hands and say, “Who knows? I quit.”
• Realize that the stable foundation is a person not a philosophy or idea. As long as you are anchored in a system of thought, even a theological system, you are subject to the cunning and craftiness of teachers. None of the -isms —Calvinism, Arminianism, Fundamentalism, Dispensationalism—are coterminous with Christ. They are all secondary. When you find holes in your -ism, your intellectual and spiritual world collapses. And every -ism has holes.

Get the love: speaking the truth in love

• Love remains the behavioral center for every authentic follower of Christ. The truth which you speak “in love” is the truth about Christ himself.
• Anger and fear are false centers. The manipulation of the deity for material prosperity is a false center. Superstition and incantations are false centers. You cannot grow up spiritually in these things.
• Love never fails. Paul keeps coming back to this in part because the false teachers are self-centered. They are fleecing the flock.

Hold on to Christ. He is the head of the body. He is the brains of the body. He directs the body. The body grows as it is connected to the Head. 

Definition of Maturity: You becoming more like Christ. 

Stay Connected:

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." — Ephesians 4:16

Maturity is not a solo journey. You cannot do it on your own. 

• You are not designed for isolation.
• You were not saved into isolation.
• You are your TV or phone is not enough. You will not mature in Christ simply through technology.
• Isolation is a tool of the Predator.

You need real people in your life. You need honest people who love you and will speak the truth to you about who you are and how you are behaving. 

• You need their watchcare over you.
• You need the accountability of their presence.
• Iron sharpens iron. One man sharpens another.

You need supporting ligaments. You are part of a joined and held together body. God has lashed you to other believers through spiritual ligaments. 

• Paul comes back to the church, the “whole body.” 
• The church is full of diversity. Everyone has different gifts. The minute you think you can do without the family of faith you are in denial and deception. We need one another!

Are you connected?